As night falls over the city of Largoon Port so does a deafening silence. All the city's residents are exhausted from their long day of work and knowing that many more will follow the whole town went to sleep. The only ones awake were given the duty of watching over the slumbering town. Despite the mysteriousness of the note about Ineptune's defeat many of residents find easy rest, reassured that their hard work would not for nothing. With theories about the note's author abound, but with no conclusive evidence, the city elects to remain on a watchful guard for anything unusual.

Knowing that their best chance of escape is on foot, the four flee the city and only take wing far enough out into the forest that there's no chance of them being spotted. Following the directions from the rough map Eurus gave them they fly East, vaguely towards the direction of Warfang. Although the map is vague they soon spot a flickering flame through the thick trees, landing on the edge of the clearing the four look around.

The dark foreboding forest is contrasted against the warm homely house sitting just off center of the clearing. The forest was quiet with only the sounds of a soft unseen stream breaking the silence, as if the whole of the forest was just as tired as the residents of Largoon Port. Spyro and Cynder walk along the cobblestone path towards the house followed by Sparx and Zoe. The house, upon closer inspection, was actually two buildings; one main building with two stories and another one that looks like a repurposed barn. The barn is unlit while the main house has several lanterns lit both inside and outside, clearly donating that that was where they needed to go.

Sticking to the shadows once they get close, they're able to get to the front door of the residency while hopefully staying out of sight of any prying eyes. Cynder looks at Spyro and with a confirming nod from him lowers their cloaks, whatever they're about to face they'll do it as themselves. Raising his claw to the door Spyro makes a series of loud taps with his claws, loud enough for anyone to hear if they're listening, but quiet enough anyone not listening won't.

Before they can even worry about knocking again the door opens and an white dragoness with red markings on her scales motions them silently to come inside. The house is decorated with objects of interest on tables and displays, they must be artifacts Turfang has recovered. The house is warmly lit with an active fireplace resting inside a stonework hearth. Couches and chairs are situated to accompany guests, but Eurus leads them away from the main living room.

Instead turning right she moves them into the dining room with a large wooden table easily capable of seating them all, Turfang is noticeably absent. Noticing her mate's absence "he should be back soon, he's just ensuring that the kids are in bed. This isn't something we want them to overhear,'' Eurus explains ominously.

"Well that reassuring…" Sparx sarcastically mocks.

"I promise we can assure your safety, this city will never be able to forget its debt to you" Turfang announces suddenly appearing in the room from a shadow.

"There was something you wanted to talk to us about?" Cynder prompts as he sits on the other side of the table.

"Yes" Turfang responds by producing a small box. "Years ago, over fifteen in fact; I was a treasure hunter, as you might remember me mentioning. I came across many artifacts in my time, some equally valuable and volatile. This artifact is extremely dangerous; I would like to request that you take it back to Warfang and ensure it doesn't harm anyone else."

"If you had it for fifteen years, why not take it there before now? Any of the Guardians surely would have been a better choice," Cynder asks knowingly.

Sighing "because I came across this artifact in a…. Less than legal way. Although entering that tomb was not expresidely illegal, it was not a legal quagmire I desired to be in. Besides the item has some… sentimental value to us, because of how dangerous it is" Turfang confusingly explains.

"Tell me about this artifact, where exactly did you find it? I want to know as much as possible before we open the box" Cynder requests. Turfang lets out a long sigh as he begins his tale.

{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

The cold muggy swamp was seemingly clinging to Turfangs scales and if he stops for any reason the mud might just swallow him whole. Flying in the Forbidden Swamps is equally impossible; the mushrooms that cover some of the trees give off a noxious airborne toxin. The inhababilty and worthlessness of the area would be enough to deter anyone else not named Turfang.

This was the big day, his last day of being an on and off again contract treasure hunter. No one requested that he come to this desolate place, nor did anyone pay him for it. In fact he's here despite the protests of his mate Eurus that the area is too dangerous. He's here because this was where it all began; this treacherous trek is what inspired him on the path he currently leads, because even when he was young he knew that building was important.

With his sharp claws Turfang rips away some hanging lichen to reveal the black stone structure. The entire cube like building was tilted as it sinks into the mud if the swamp, despite this no imperfections can be found on its jet-black surface. Even Turfang is surprised that after so many years nothing has started growing or flowed into it, as if the swamp equally recognises the sanctity of this place. It was as if the whole structure had been teleported from its original location with no regard for the where it had landed.

Banishing the last vestiges of cowardice from his heart Turfang finally approaches the tomb after so many years. As he crosses the threshold he sees that the semi-liquid mud that had plagued his journey here hasn't tainted the structure; in fact the mud forms an unnatural plateau in the entrance. The air runs cold, unnaturally cold; not harmfully cold, but certainly uncomfortable. He's unnerved by it a little but ultimately he decides to push forward; this was a special occasion after all, a little mysticism wasn't going to deter him.

Stepping on the black stone he finds that it has a slight slip to it and nearly loses his balance, "must be that whatever magic is keeping this place so clean is keeping my paws from catching on its surface" he mutters under his breath. Proceeding more carefully on the unnaturally polished and slippery surface, he descends down the black stone staircase. A couple of dozen steps later he finds himself in a large room, easily capable of having four fully grown dragons walking abreast, all of this is illuminated darkly by an unknown lightsource. Despite the clear significance of the room it seems barren, expecept for a simple model of a dragon's head on a pedestal.

The room is dark because of a lack of light sources, so Turfang thinks he's just seeing it wrong, but as he steps forward he sees it's just a display model for some jewelry. Still thinking that it was odd he walks up to the odd display and finds two pieces of jewelry, a necklace and a crown like headpiece. The necklace was a simple silver necklace inlaid with a poorly cut green gem, it seems so plain and cheap compared to the crown. The crown on the other hand was a complicated piece made of silver inlaid with several gems of a variety of colors and cuts; however, it was clearly specially made to fit the unique head shape of the model. And a unique shape it was; most display models, both professional and personal, are a standard two horned model of the average dragon. This model however was a model of a dragoness's head with four curved horns, two curled ones at the back of the head and the other two smaller ones splitting off the main horns and curling up front, down, and around her eyes almost resting on the base of her snout.

She was beautiful, but he doesn't know who it could be. Noting the jewelry he continues surveying the area; he needs as much information as possible before he tries to take anything. Unfortunately this is largely all the room as to offer, smirking and using his experience he lifts the head model. People try to hide things all the time in unusual places and sure enough there's something engraved in the back of the dragoness's head. He tries to decipher the strange engraving before realising that it was ancient Dragon, an ancient script used many generations ago. "Eurus might know how to decipher it" Turfang mutters while nodding.

As he's turning the display around to look for anymore clues the crown starts to slip, feeling the shifting weight in his paws he catches it before it can be damaged by falling to the ground. He only has the time to breathe a single breath of relief before the structure emits a large groan all around him. The building quakes and shakes and water starts to trickle into the room, the building was sinking into the mud.

"Turfang!" a familiar female voice shouts out from outside of the building.

"I swear to all of the gods if she followed me out here…" Turfang mutters replacing the headpiece on the model. This wasn't the first time he dealt with this kind of trap, it's pretty common for magic traps to be activated once the catalyst is removed. The water immediately drains away and he thinks the building may have even risen back up into place. "Is this what is maintaining the structure…?" Turfang mutters as he sees his mate Eurus running down the steps to him.

She stops a few steps away from him, knowing she's in trouble. "Dennena isn't a very good liar."

"I was hoping she'd at least run you around for a little while, I was hoping to have a few hours to myself."

"In a poisonous, treacherous, and deadly bog? A place so toxically dangerous that we have an explicit ordinance to not come here at any cost? And you expected me not to follow?" Eurus playfully teases sidling up to him and planting a kiss on his snout. "You aren't mad I came are you?"

"No, of course not. I just thought that maybe this might be a little too dangerous for you, I had to slip into my Shadow to avoid some of the more treacherous parts. How did you even get here?"

"I blew the spores away with my Wind, honestly I almost can't believe nobody had thought of it before" Eurus explains. "What is this place?" She asks marveling at the beautifully dark structure.

"Not sure, there's nothing of note here besides this model with some jewelry on it." Turfang points to the head. Eurus reaches for the beautifully intricate crown, before he stops here "Wait! That thing is what is maintaining this place, and you wonder why I didn't what you here" Turfang teasingly pretends to huff.

Rolling her eyes, "is there really nothing else here? It looks like it is part of a greater structure, but still ..." She trails looking to him for his experience.

"Actually there is" Turfang lifts the model and turns it over, now careful to not let the headpiece slip. "You can read old Dragon right?" Interested Eurus studies the line of text, impatiently "well?"

"I'm trying but I can't quite pinpoint the era, that'll change the meaning. I'll have to go line by line: "For my undying love…. Despite your faults and vulnerabilities… I will always love you…. No matter where your soul may rest….""

Eurus smirks as she finishes deciphering the final line, "What?" Turfang asks suspicious.

"I thought you refused grave robbing?"

"Well…." Turfang stammers to defend himself before cracking a smirk. "If you wait long enough it stops being grave robbing and becomes archeology. What does the final line say?"

"I'm not sure," Eurus makes a face trying to figure it out. "I'll always love you… bad forberer? It's in some kind of local dialect, prefix Mal-"

"Malefor." Both would swear on their lives that the room dropped excess of twenty degrees

"This is the tomb of Malefor the dark purple dragon who nearly destroyed the world…" Turfang mutters out in awe. The dark architecture and foreboding atmosphere suddenly make sense; the dragon responsible for the near extinction of the draconic race was laid to rest here.

"What should we do?" Eurus asks in a hushed tone as if Malefor himself might overhear them despite his demise. She just wants to flee and run away, but she finds her eyes drawn back to the jewelry on the models head. "What should we do about these?"

"What about them?"

"I feel as if we should take them with us, maybe take them to someone who might know something about this?" Eurus suggests surprising herself; typically she'd be the first one to choose to leave something where it lay.

"This was built by someone, who clearly cares deeply about that psychopath; they might come after us if we take it" Turfang cautions.

"What if they're gonna use it for something, when I was reading in the library I read that certain gems could be used to store power" Eurus points indicating the poorly cut gem in the necklace. "I don't think it's wise to just leave it sitting here."

"I agree, just… Are you sure about this?" Turfang's eyes falter for a moment before deciding to look confidently into his mates eyes. "I know you wanted me to take less risks out in the field, and take a better, safer job with the city guard. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I think so. I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night if I know that this threat is out here and we could have done something about it.."

In agreement they both turn to look at the amulet and crown. Knowing that removing the crown would sink the building they decide to take the necklace with them. Fearing that since Shadow was so close to the darkness they decided that Eurus should be the one to hold it, as they believed that she was unaffected by it.

{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

"We could not of been more wrong" Turfang goes on to explain. Motioning his mate over, "it was when we noticed the black markings inside of her red chain-like birthmarks that we realized that we had not in fact turned the jewelry in to the Guardians as we had intended. But instead we just… didn't. It was then that we realised that it was affecting us and our decisions; it wasn't turning us evil or anything but…. It's as if the necklace was just manipulating us to avoid being in a position where it wouldn't be able to affect anyone else."

"Else?" Cynder asks looking to the obvious victim. "What exactly did it do to you?"

Eurus's eyes turn down as she examines the table trying to decide if she wants to talk about it. Cynder is about to reassure her that she doesn't need to, but she suddenly speaks quickly and quietly "I was tasked with keeping the artifact safe, so that it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. But the dark presence-the dark magic sealed within, began to infect me."

"Extremely powerful beings have been known to leave an imprint on personal items of theirs" Zoe insightfully adds.

"Exactly Malefor's presence would have infected the necklace and therefore infected who ever was wearing it" Cynder reasons.

"Correct, while wearing the amulet it attempted to infect me, but we believe that it wasn't strong enough to corrupt me in any meaningful way." Eurus builds confidence towards a conclusion, pushing through the growing shame "instead it targeted our child."

Eurus lets the surprise fade from the gathered's eyes, "we didn't know I was carrying. We think I must have been pregnant when we first discovered the artifact." Shaking her head at the sad memories "We didn't find out what had happened to our child until after the egg had been laid, it was pitch-black. Not like the dark greys of a Shadow dragon, but so black that it seemingly sucked up all the light in the area. Even after we realized what had happened we were determined to raise this child, that we would do everything in our power to prevent this child's accursed fate. Looking back on it now we now realise that we had been foolish, we should have gone to the Guardians, they're the only ones who could have done anything about this. Eventually we were forced to go to the Guardians with the onset of the war with the Apes; we gave up the egg believing it would be safe there as we evacuated the Dragon Realms. Of course it was one of many eggs to lose their lives that day."

"I see…. I'm sorry for your loss" Cynder voices.

"Few dragonic children are born because it's so common for them to die as an egg, it was an eventuality we were prepared for; it was the corruption of our would-be child that was so tragic."

"Many die as eggs?" Spyro asks dividing from the thread of conversation as Cynder retreats thinking things over.

Cocking his head Turfang turns to Spyro, "of course. Less than a quarter of fertilized eggs make it to hatching. It's why the Dragon population grows so slowly even in times of peace; I'm surprised that a dragon your age wouldn't know this."

"My egg survived by floating down a river; I was raised by Dragonflies instead. In fact Sparx is my brother" Spyro explains.

"I see that being the purple dragon isn't even the most interesting aspect of your life" Turfang beams parent-like. Smiling as the conversation dies as he looks to Cynder; the look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. She agreed with their conclusion, it was the most likely scenario given the circumstances. He didn't want to have this conversation, it's not that he doesn't want to know; it's that he doesn't know what to do if it's true. So he leaves the choice to Cynder "we can step outside to discuss this if you want."

The conversation is ground to a halt as everyone but Cynder, Eurus and Turfang are left confused. "What? I don't think this is the time for the talk right now-" Sparx chuckles before he's silenced by Turfang's piercing gaze.

"I think they should be here to hear this." Even more confused the three look to her for answers; Cynder hadn't shared the full story with anyone else of her conversation with Navzes. "It's the only sequence of events that explains why my egg was taken, that they somehow sensed the darkness that had infected me."

Looks of surprise as the three connect the dots about what she means; Sparx takes several quick looks between the three comparing their physical features. But they're just too different, Cynder only has the vagues similarities to the two adults. "But how?" Spyro is the first to vocalize, "there were so many eggs..."

"They were somehow able to target its dark presence, being Malefor's minions they would already have a powerful connection to him, even if he wasn't in this world at the time." Cynder explains. "They took the egg, corrupted it further, and created the Terror of the Skies."

"Wouldn't that make them your…" Spyro trails embarrassingly realizing that was obvious.

Cynder sighs deeply, she doesn't mean to sound ungrateful, but…. "I was expecting to know for sure. That when I found my family that it would be more…. I don't know…" she trails sounding selfish. She knows that she shouldn't talk like that; this was a one in a million chance, especially since Spyro hasn't found his biological family at all.

"Things don't always work out nicely, the world isn't like a story book where all the pieces fit together nicely" Turfang speaks with experience.

"I know but… I was hoping that I'd make some kind of connection, that all of a sudden everything that's happened to me would make sense." Cynder tears up a bit, "I hoped that I'd make some kind of familital connection; that I'd finally have a family." Wiping her eyes, "I'm sorry. I know how this sounds."

"It's okay," Turfang comforts. "We were worried this might be exactly the case; in fact it was because of that we waited so long to say anything. Crying is okay, being sad about this is okay, wishing you could know more is okay. Crying isn't weakness, not being able or willing to show your true feeling is," Turfang reassures in a fatherly way.

There's something about Turfang's last statement that sticks with Spyro, about how it's okay to cry and show your feelings. But Spyro doesn't cry much, even in the most despaired filled times in his life he doesn't cry. It's not like he doesn't feel emotions; maybe he's been bottling them up too much for the sake of others. He was always always the big brother in a certain way, despite Sparx actually being older, it was always Spyro to step up against any real danger. Spyro doesn't understand this feeling, or why it bothers him so much, so he decides to put it away for another time.

Once again Sparx and Zoe find themselves outside of the conversation, both of them know who their parents are. And with seemingly nothing else left to contribute they flutter awkwardly, this is practically a family reunion; and this time they are not a part of it.

With Turfang's advice hanging in the room they all stop talking; despite his insistence that there's nothing wrong with not being absolutely certain no one knows how to further the conversation. Cleverly Eurus thinks of a segway, "maybe if we get this necklace analysed we can find out more," moving the wooden case across the table to gather attention. "Maybe we can find something about the make, the crafting origins of it might provide us with some more insight about the nature of the curse."

Thankful for the distraction Cynder realises something, "tell me more about the curse in particular. With all the grief it's already caused, I don't want to be caught off guard about anything."

"Of course" Eurus agrees to explain being the one more knowledgeable about the curse. "The curse isn't like others, it doesn't drive you to commit to your darkest impulses; it just…. Strives to protect itself. It distracted us to the point that we never took any action to protect ourselves against it, only that we decided that it was better for me to take care of it. Although we can't know for certain how it affected you it's likely that its influence was little more than a foothold for the corruption that turned you into the Terror of the Skies. After you… our child was lain, it was seemingly drained of the last of its magic. From testing with the two of us we found that it no longer has any effects, mental or otherwise. It's just a simple piece of jewelry with a dark past now."

Nodding in understanding Cynder turns to Turfang, "tell me about the dragoness who you found this necklace on. What did she look like?"

A long pause rings out before he answers, "she looked like you. Specifically your horns resemble her's much more than either of ours, although since your mother doesn't have any horns it's hard to tell." Confused Spyro looks at Eurus again, he's right. She doesn't have any horns, for a moment Spyro can't believe he hadn't noticed that because of how serpentine it makes her. "Being only a dark colorless head model, there weren't many identifiable features. Now that I think about it she looked closer to your adult corrupted form, she was just as beautiful," Turfang explains earning him a playful glare from Eurus.

Once again nodding in understanding, "I thought she might have…"

"Why is that?" Turfang asks.

"I have been haunted by a spirit of sorts I've been calling the Terror, because it looks just like my Terror of the Skies form. Unlike your description she's an exact match; I think that maybe the magic from this dragoness is somehow related to the appearance of this Terror. Although I've more recently began to theorize that these nightmares might be coming from a completely external source... Can I see the necklace? If it's truly stemming from this artifact it might help me better prepare to face it again; especially since my last encounter proved that she doesn't have the power she's claimed to. I think I might be able to overcome her soon."

"Although I can't say I'm entirely sure I'm happy to see this accursed thing again, I will" reaching back over the table both Eurus and Turfang produce two matching keys. Seeing their looks "our children know nothing about this, although they'll learn when they are older, we intend to keep it that way."

Inserting both keys into two illusionary-hidden locks they turn and the top pops open in presentation. Nestled in a luxurious red-velvety material is the simple green rough cut necklace. The piece was so clearly a precious family heirloom because it was obvious that the actual value of the item would be insignificant; sepearly both Spyro and Cynder vow to uncover the truth behind this object. Reaching out her paw Cynder goes to touch it; Turfang's about to speak up to stop her when Eurus places a paw on his leg stopping him.

Spyro had already laid a paw on her shoulder, "are you sure about this?"

"I need to, can you help me?" Cynder requests.

"Of course" Spyro immediately responds showing no hesitation to hold such a dangerous item for her.

They both get up from the table and move to a more open area of the room; the remaining four sit patiently, none of them knowing exactly what to expect. Placing the box so that it would be easier to reach on the side of the table they stand facing one another, chuckling a little at how silly they look they start.

"What do you want me to do?" Spyro asks.

"Just give it to me from the box, I think I should wear it for this-"

"Good luck getting it around her horns." Sparx comedically advices.

Rolling her eyes "I'm sure it'll be fine. I just want you to be here in case anything happens, I could collapse or…." Cynder trails uncertain what to expect.

"It might be better if one of the adults-"

"I want it to be you" Spyro just nods and smiles back in response.

Turning back to the necklace Spyro breathes deeply before slowly picking up the necklace by the silver chain. Spyro is visibly surprised and mutters out "it's heavier than it looks…" Not really struggling but still surprised Spyro turns back to Cynder and looks deeply into her eyes, searching for anything that would indicate she doesn't want to anymore but she stays firm. Before placing the necklace over her Spyro looks deep within himself for any change: physical, mental, or psychological. But thankfully he doesn't find any change, it seems that they were right about its lack of power today. Lifting it up and standing up on two legs Spyro places it over Cynder's head, around her horns, and on to her neck. Stepping back down Spyro meets her eyes again "well? Are you okay?"

"So far" Cynder responds, unlike Spyro Cynder does feel something when he asks. It's small, in the far back of her mind, but something nonetheless. "Just stay will me, please?" Cynder requests as she closes her eyes.

She closes her eyes and tries to focus her mind when Spyro lays his head against her neck on onto her back, "I will."

Blushing deeply at this Cynder's heart flutters at his sudden affection, she doesn't know what exactly to do. She wants to confess right then and there, in front of everyone: her new possible parents, his brother, and his brother's not very well hidden girlfriend. But she's too much of a coward; she wants to tell him more than anything in the world right now, even more than she wants the Terror gone. But she's afraid of how it'll change their relationship or how he might react in the moment. Finally deciding to submit to the hug she reciprocates, lays her head down, and closes her eyes.

When she reopens them she's in the mental spirit world. Despite everything that she doesn't know, everything she doesn't understand about what's happening; none of it matters right now, understanding could wait. Although she can't feel him in this mental world she knows Spyro's still there for her and that if anything happens she knows she can count on him.

Unlike her most recent visit the blue wisps aren't as bright as when she was assisted by the cleansing spell last night, although it's still plenty bright enough for her to see. The cobble stone path is far more complete: nearly a full path with few floating stones and she doesn't need to fly over any of the broken sections. With the warm light on her scales and confidence in her wings she walks towards the light, "hellooo! Anyone here!" Cynder taunts knowing there's nothing the Terror can do to stop her now.

Reaching the light undisturbed Cynder enters, a feeling of warmth growing comfortably inside of her. Breaking through she finds a spherical domed area made of the swirling blue wisps, all surrounding a pedestal with the necklace on it. Walking up Cynder's eyes grow wide as she finally understands the symbolism; somehow her mind understood everything, and she was subconsciously leading herself to finding the truth. Reaching out in wonder Cynder lays a paw on the green gem, when she does she instinctively blinks. Replacing the pestistal is Spyro, wearing the necklace around his neck and smiling while looking forward into her eyes. "I love you" Cynder silently proclaims as the world fades away.

{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}

Spyro and Cynder sit together for a moment as she confronts the Terror, Cynder is obviously unconscious but Spyro is holding her in place. It was obvious that they both had complete faith in one another; despite all the issues they all separately knew about, it was clear to the four that they both had absolute trust in one another. Taking a moment to notice the finer details Eurus spots something that should have been obvious to her immediately; she's at least three times Cynder's size, despite this the necklace still lays properly against her chest. It seems that there's still some magic left in the old relic after all; there's not much they can do about it now as Cynder was already deep in unconsciousness.

Only moments after she'd gone under she reawakens, Spyro backs up and lets her stand on her own. No one but the nurse Aqua had actually watched her while she was unconscious during any of the times she had been attacked by the Terror and no one was certain what exactly to expect. Raising her eyes back to Spyro's with only a half-smile "It's gone."

"I thought you'd be happier?"

"I didn't have a confrontation with the Terror, it was just… gone."

"Gone?" Spyro asks. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yes…" Cynder admits. "But something that makes me concerned; I doubt this force, whatever it is, is going to give up so easily.

"That seems wise" Turfang advises, "now that we have this situation und-" suddenly he goes dead silent.

As do both Spyro and Cynder; Eurus, Sparx, and Zoe look on in confusion. Eurus is the first to recover from the sudden stop in conversation, "honey? What's going on?" Spyro, Cynder, Turfang, and even Eurus begins to feel the increasing pressure in the room. A being of extreme and powerful darkness is doing nothing to hide its presence, in fact it seems to be pushing to be noticed.

Turfang doesn't respond his eyes scanning and moving to the window and peeking out the curtain. "There's something outside. The feeling of darkness is palatable ..."

"Where?" Sparx and Zoe both ask simultaneously, with no direct connection to this darkness they can't feel anything; except the foreboding feeling of knowing that everyone else knows something you don't.

"Turfang," Eurus gets her husbands attention. "The kids-" before she can finish Turfang had already slipped into his shadow to protect their children.

With the kids safe "Spyro, Cynder?" Are you two going out there?" she asks with poorly masked fear. She's never felt something like this; she's never been a coward, but she's not going out there, it's all that she can do to not start shaking uncontrollably.

"I don't think we have a choice; whatever it is, it wants us outside" Cynder explains as they turn towards the door.

"That's very brave of you" Eurus commends her eyes staring into their backs. Her front paws curl and uncurl, she wasn't weak; But these two are too far beyond her, she'll only get away. Eurus resigns herself to letting her newly discovered daughter and the purple dragon of legend go out to face this presence alone.

As they start heading toward the front of the house Spyro turns to Cynder, "any idea what's going on?" The presence had only grown larger during their short conversation.

"Whatever this is, it wants us out there. Let's go" she confidently says pushing open the front door. Emboldened by the end of the Terror's torment she's ready to face this darkness, although she's not so careless as to walk into any obvious traps.

Sparx and Zoe, seemingly forgotten, watch as their friends walk out to their next danger. Just after the news that they had found Cynder's parents, their ability to move forward despite the circumstances was incredible; but maybe this was a little too much. They wish that there was something they could say, that could help them understand anything that just happened, or to give some comfort, but nothing comes to either of their minds.

Stepping outside dew had covered the grass from the recent storm, chilling their paws but failing to break their focus. Stepping out onto the front lawn their eyes scan around them, the dark foreboding feeling disturbingly absent outside. Sticking together the two walk forward out towards where they remember where the presence coming from, finding nothing the two look around incredulously; surely it wouldn't of just led them outside for no reason. The front door reopens and they see that Eurus had followed them just to the door with Sparx and Zoe fluttering just around the corner.

Seeing as how they haven't found it yet she starts looking too, moving her eyes up the dark muddy path her gaze halts. Spyro and Cynder whirl around and despite having not been there before, a tall dark figure stands some distance away blocking the path they had no intention of escaping by. Despite the respectable distance between it's obvious that it's at least two and a half to three times their height while standing on two legs.. It's long cloak covers all features except for a scalie arm holding a wooden staff, the staff is intricately carved yet it lacks anything in its head piece despite their clearly once being something in its slot.

"What is it…?" Cynder whispers to Spyro, all Dragons are quadropod creatures. While some Dragons can walk on two legs their spines aren't built to support that weight for long; and no other bipedal race she knows of is of that size or possess scales.

"Another of the old legends characters?" Spyro whispers louder than he means to.

Chuckling menacingly the mysterious dragon finally speaks "I see my… friends, have preceded me-"

Rolling her eyes Cynder's already done with this "yes, yes. We know you are here to try to get revenge for Ineptune's defeat. Just like everyone else in whatever organization you're a part of, you're here to challenge us to some kind of fight." Pissed and annoyance growing "look, we're having a personal moment. If you can just fuck off until like… tommorow morning that'd be nice." Both Spyro and the mysterious being look at her in shock, Cynder's typically ready for a fight at any moment; but she's not emotionally in the mood for it today. She just wants to be left alone.

Several seconds pass before the mysterious creature decides his new plan of action, "I see… I did not expect Ineptune to be so foolish as to be defeated this early in the game. I had come to test the purple dragon of this age, but I see that that is not necessary anymore." His tone is oddly respectful, a nice change of pace from the usually overconfident villianus spiel. "Although I had no doubt that I couldn't defeat you, I wasn't expecting you to be so powerful as to overcome her so early. I suppose you've passed my test."

"Your test?" Spyro asks incredulously, before cocking his head to the side. "Wait a minute… You didn't know about Ineptune's defeat?"

Cynder blinks before realising that that is strange, if they were working together surely they would have known of her defeat. That was the whole reason why they kept a low profile, to avoid the other old legends characters from coming after them while visiting her family.

Ignoring the question "I see your far smarter than the Spyro of my time-" both his words and Spyro's formulating questions are cut off when rising out of a shadow, Turfang sudden appears with the two. Growling loudly and his red eyes glowing menacingly in the dark he says nothing. "I see that I have caused a stir here, I think that it is time for me to leave this place behind." Turning around the creature waves his hand and a dark portal opens before him, barely taking any notice of the dark abyss he smirks and looks over his shoulder. "I'll need to test the Elders of this time as well, otherwise… nothing will have changed."

Stepping into the dark portal the being is gone when it collapses, with it gone the dark foreboding feeling surrounding them fades quickly. Seconds pass, everyone uncertain if this is some kind of trick; when, thankfully, he doesn't return everyone can finally relax. Turfang relaxes and calms down a little with his children finally safe, "was that just as strange as I saw?"

Spyro nodes as does Cynder, Sparx, and Zoe "yeah, none of that made any sense to me."

Eurus is making a face which attracts the attention of the group, formulating her idea she asks "did he say the purple dragon of his time was named Spyro?"

"Yeah… That was odd" Spyro agreed. He suspected there might have been other purple dragons, but another one called Spyro?

"Wasn't Spyro the name of the first purple dragon? From the old legends?" Eurus voices.

Spyro's eyes go wide, the first purple dragon was named Spyro? Spyro almost can't believe that the purple dragon from the time that's causing them all this trouble shares the same name with him. His expression made his internal questions so obvious that Eurus starts explaining, "after you four left I did a little reading in the book I mentioned, the one about the old legends. Not only do you share a name with the purple dragon, but your fluttering golden little friend here shares one too, with another Dragonfly named Sparx. He looked kinda like the evil Elder Red-"

"Wait-" Turfang interrupts as Eurus finishes. "If he was referencing the Elders of his time, he was talking about that group of Elders. That group of Elders is the spiritual predecessor to the modern-day Guardians; he's going after the Guardians at Warfang" Turfang clarifies.

"We need to go!" Spyro announces, "we need to beat him there…" Spyro pauses.

"Before he teleports there?" Cynder chuckles darkly. "We can't beat him there, we should go though, see if there's anything we can do."

As Cynder is suggesting that a small voice calls out from the barn "Mommy? Daddy?"

Turfang looks to his mate "your turn" he smiles. Rolling her eyes Eurus takes off to put the kids back to bed, hopefully they haven't seen or heard too much. "I too think you should probably be going, I would love if you could stay; but I think we all know that you both can't and won't." Nodding Cynder is about to prepare to depart when she remembers the necklace, looking down at her chest she lifts a paw to remove it when Turfang lays his paw over hers. "I think you need it more than we do now" he smiles removing his paw from the necklace that, despite what it's done to his family, he's hesitant to let go of. This accursed thing that's caused so much pain, yet he wants her to bring it back with her when she returns. "Cynder, no matter what happens, no matter how much time may pass; know that you will always have a place here. We might not know the truth for certain, but your my daughter now, and you'll always be welcome back."

Cynder tears up, she's only known them for a short time; but hearing that there's a place that's willing to have her, other than an institution that's practically required to, made her happy. Cynder has no intention of running from what's happening in the world, but having a place to run to gives her a better sense of stability than she's ever had in her life. "Thank you, thank you so much…" she mutters wiping her eyes. "We should really be going, the sooner we leave the sooner we'll arrive at Warfang."

Nodding Turfang agrees before leaning his head down to whisper in her ear, making absolutely certain no one else can hear "tell him. He deserves to know how you feel, and I think you'll feel a lot better if you do. But it's your choice, I'm not familiar with your relationship with him, but I think it'll help both of you." Turfang pulls back and sees her "how" expression, "Eurus spilled, and frankly it's a little obvious."

"Thank you" Cynder admits, "thank you for everything." Cynder steps back and flies into the air swiftly followed Spyro, Sparx, and Zoe as they fly to the rescue of the Guardians at Warfang.